Stuttering

Stuttering is a speech problem that interferes with normal word
patterns and is not appropriate for a person's age. A person who stutters
involuntarily repeats, draws out, does not complete, or skips sounds or words
when speaking.

A person who stutters may:

Repeat sounds, parts of words, and sometimes
entire words.

Pause between words or within a word; sometimes the
pauses are silent.

Substitute simple words for those that are hard
to speak.

Use incomplete phrases.

Make interjections
(such as adding "uh" or "um" in the middle of a sentence).

Show
obvious tension or discomfort while talking. Other physical symptoms may occur,
such as eye-blinking or head nodding.

Make parenthetical remarks.
This means a person who is talking seems to abruptly change subject matter. For
example, a person may say, "I wonder if it will... where is the dog?"

Stuttering associated with normal speech development is called
normal disfluency and usually goes away on its own before puberty. More severe
forms of stuttering, called developmental stuttering, usually do not resolve
without treatment.

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